Alternative syntax for control structures

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control
structures; namely, if,
while, for,
foreach, and switch.
In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change
the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to
endif;, endwhile;,
endfor;, endforeach;, or
endswitch;, respectively.

<?php if ($a == 5): ?>A is equal to 5<?php endif; ?>

In the above example, the HTML block "A is equal to 5" is nested within an
if statement written in the alternative syntax. The
HTML block would be displayed only if $a is equal to 5.

The alternative syntax applies to else and
elseif as well. The following is an
if structure with elseif and
else in the alternative format: